Politics

Joint Chiefs Chairman Clarifies Biden Remark That Global Warming Is ‘Greatest Physical Threat’ To America

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Greg Price Contributor
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America’s top military officer said Thursday that China and Russia remain the greatest military threats to America after President Biden said that the Joint Chiefs told him that the greatest physical threat facing America was global warming.

“Climate change does impact, but the president is looking at a much broader angle than I am. I’m looking at it from a strictly military standpoint. And from a strictly military standpoint, I’m putting China, Russia up there,” Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a congressional panel Thursday morning.

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“This is not, however, in conflict with the acknowledgment that climate change or infrastructure or education systems – national security has a broad angle to it. I’m looking at it from a strictly military standpoint,” Gen. Milley added in response to the question that came from North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer.

“I just think it’s peculiar that the president would go to another continent and tell our service members there that the number one threat is climate change,” Sen. Cramer said in response to Gen. Milley’s testimony.

While speaking at Royal Air Force Mildenhall station in the United Kingdom yesterday, President Biden told the crowd of American troops that the Joint Chiefs said while he was vice president that the greatest threat facing the United States today is climate change.

“When I first was elected vice president with President Obama, military sat us down to let us know what the greatest threats facing America were — greatest physical threats. This is not a joke,” Biden told the soldiers. “You know what the Joint Chiefs told us the greatest threat facing America was? Global warming.”

Biden has made fighting climate change a cornerstone of his policy agenda since the first day of his administration with some of his first acts as president being executive orders to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and halt construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline. (RELATED: Biden’s Climate Plan Will Lead To Higher Costs For Consumers And Households, Experts Say)

The administration’s proposed infrastructure package also includes millions of dollars in spending on green energy programs.